Perry All Alone
by sebtled debt
Summary: When Perry is told that he is being sent on the most dangerous mission ever, he questions everything that is going on around him. And when he is encountered by a mysterious shadow figure, he doesn't know where to turn. PLZ R&R Mystery/Suspense/Adventure
1. A Look At Life

"Perry the Platypus, don't take one more step or I will drop your friends into the lava!" the Doof said, in a threatening manner unlike himself. "One more step and you could say bye bye to your friends."

Perry notices a screw lying loose on the ground. He slowly inches his tail towards it, making sure Doofenshmirtz does not see him. He quickly pops it up into the air and slaps it with his tail. The screw sails towards Doofenshmirtz at an alarming rate. Doofenshmirtz quickly ducks and the screw hits a button on the wall behind him.

"Perry the Platypus," the Doof says in a startled voice. "Do you know what you've just done?"

Perry looks over to the kids in a panic.

Doofenshmirtz then says, "Well I don't either. But I do know what this one does!" He pulls a remote from out of his pocket and holds it towards the kids. He pushes the button and the top of the pool of lava opens up revealing fifty gallons of hot magma.

Perry, not knowing what to do next, freezes. Doofenshmirtz presses another button and the kids start to fall to the lava.

They all yell out, "Perry, HELP!" Perry still frozen does nothing, for there is nothing that he can do. The kids continued to fall until…

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

Perry suddenly finds himself lying safe on Phineas' bed. He is sweating and breathing heavily, as if his dream had really just happened. But that's how we all feel.

Perry readjusts himself as Phineas hops out of bed and walks out of the room alongside Ferb.

Perry soon falls asleep again. This time, he is all alone. Everywhere he goes he sees nothing. All of a sudden, he is woken by something.

He is sweating more than before now. Perry finds himself having these recurring dreams every night. He doesn't know what they mean, but they have to mean something.

A cold breeze from the slightly ajar window rushes in. Perry hears the leaves rustling outside and the wind whistling. The birds are singing a peaceful song and the squirrels are gathering their food for the winter.

Perry sits there wondering what it would be like to live in the wild. Just for one day, he wishes he could see how it feels to be free. What if he never was an animal? What if he was human, just like Phineas, or Ferb, or even Isabella? What if he was never wanted by the Flynn-Fletchers? What would his family be like? What would his life be like?

All these thoughts ran through Perry's head as he tried to forget about his dreams.

Perry peeked through the open window and saw three birds sitting in their nest with their mom. The mother bird sneaked a quick glance at Perry at returned to its babies.

Perry wondered what it would be like if he was still with his family. He wondered why he wasn't with them right now and what they would be like.

Perry, trying to escape these thoughts, jumped off of the bed and walked to the door. Before leaving, he stopped and turned around. He saw the mother bird leaving the nest to find food for the babies.

Perry thought to himself that maybe, just maybe, that's what happened. Maybe his parents went off to find food but never returned. As Perry walked out the door, he thought of what might happen to the baby birds if their mother never returned.

Perry walked down the steps to the first floor. There, he saw Linda as she was leaving for the grocery store. He saw her hug Phineas and Ferb as she left.

Deep down inside, Perry wishes for his parents to return so they could be happy again. Perry thought that maybe if the Flynn-Fletchers knew what he did every day, that if he wasn't a secret agent, Doofenshmirtz may have taken over the tri-state area. He thinks that maybe, he should show them. Show them his lair, his gadgets, and even where he disappears to everyday.

Just then, Perry's communicator starts vibrating. He takes it out and looks down at the screen. On the screen, written in flashing red letters are the words, 'Report For Your Next Mission!'

Perry sighs a faint sigh as he returns the device to where he got it. Perry walks up to a photo hanging on the wall. He looks up at it then down at his feet. Perry sighs once more. He starts swinging his arms around and all of a sudden, he is sucked into the picture.

Perry appears in his chair in the lair as the computer screen starts up. A man by the name of Martin Vince appears on the screen.

"Hello, Agent, uh…" he runs his finger down a paper on a clipboard. "Ah hah. Agent, P, is it?" the man says, unsure if he chose the correct name.

Perry nods his head as the man continues. "Yes, yes. I thought so. Major Monogram has told me quite a few things about you. But don't worry, nothing bad. Nothing bad at all."

The man introduces himself and tells Perry that Major Monogram and Carl have disappeared. "We have also discovered that along with your two friends, the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz has disappeared as well."

The man continues to ramble on about what he thinks of the predicament as Perry poses a confused expression.

"Now, you may be wondering why we've called you here. Well, the thing is, you are the best agent the agency has ever had. And, well, you're the only one left. All the other agents refused to help us. They said that they didn't want to get themselves in danger. They said they don't even know what's going on. I'm sorry, I'm rambling again, aren't I? Well, anyway, we need you to go look for clues anywhere you can that could help us find out what has happened to these people. We suggest that you first look at the Dr.'s building. There's bound to be something of interest there."

Perry nods his head and salutes Martin. He walks over to the elevator and steps inside. The doors close and he slowly rises up. Perry watches Martin as he ascends. He wonders what will happen to him, not knowing of what may be in store. As the elevator reaches the top, a platypus sized hole in the outside wall of the house opens up.

Out steps a platypus, worried and sad. He looks back up at the tree he saw before and notices the bird nest. The mother bird is sitting there alone, the babies gone. Perry looks ahead and pulls his fedora over his eyes. He thinks about what had happened to those baby birds as he walks off into the distance.


	2. The Shadow Figure

A quaint little platypus walks along the sidewalk of Danville toward the Dr.'s building. He stops in front of it and looks up to try and see the top.

He takes out a grappling hook gun and aims it at the side of the building. He presses the button to make it fire but it the hook gets caught in the barrel of the gun and breaks.

Perry sighs as he walks up to the side of the building. He looks up once more and reaches for the wall. He starts to pull himself up as he thinks about what's up in the Dr.'s building.

As he approaches the top, a bird carrying a piece of parchment perches atop his shoulder. Perry opens the window and climbs into the Dr.'s empty room. Perry removes the parchment from the birds talons and unrolls it.

Printed on the parchment is a simple yet bewildering, '28'. Perry contemplates over what this could possibly mean.

Perry turns around to find that the doctor's room is neater than anytime he's seen it before. To his left, Perry sees resting on a side table another piece of parchment. He scurries over and picks it up. Written on the paper is the phrase, 'Take it slow'.

Now, Perry is in a complete state of confusion. Two notes assumedly meant for him, that he doesn't understand.

"28, and Take it slow," Perry thinks to himself. "What could these mean?"

Perry looks up from the two notes and notices a door on the other side of the room. A faint light is peeking through the cracks.

Perry walks over and puts his ear against the door to make sure that no one is inside. He hears nothing so he decides to look inside. As he opens the door, he notices the doctor's inventions from every past encounter he had with him.

The deflate-inator, the drill-inator, the Mime-inator, the invisinator, the…"

Perry's eyes suddenly widen as he sees something that may be of use.

"The slow-motion-inator! Take it slow!" Perry thinks to himself. "The doctor used this the twenty-eighth time we met! This has to be what he wants me to find! But… what do I do with it?"

Pacing, Perry ponders the things that he can use it for. After a while of thinking, he hasn't come up with anything. So he decides to take the device with him.

As he is heading for the door, the bird returns to Perry. He realizes that it is carrying another note and removes it from the bird's beak. On the parchment, written as if the person was rushing, was, 'I see you'.

Now that was the weirdest note Perry has received so far, and will probably be even harder to solve than the previous two. Perry leaves the building, still examining the paper… still thinking… still wondering… still hoping…

As he walks down the streets of a now seemingly endless street, Perry wonders if he'll ever be able to help his friends. Will he prevail, or will he fall?

Perry stops at a cross section and looks across the street. He sees a tall man shrouded in a black jacket. They stand there, watching each other.

A truck passes in front of them and the man disappears. Perry, scared to be alone, returns home.

He reenters his lair, sets the slow-motion-inator down on a nearby shelf and exits the room.

He returns to the boys' bedroom to hear that all famous line for what seems like the millionth time, "Oh, there you are, Perry."

As he jumps back onto Phineas' bed, he wonders about the journey awaiting him.

After the two brothers are asleep, Perry reaches for his communicator. Perry's heart starts beating faster as he notices that it is not there. His life, his secrets, his gadgets, everything are stored in that device, and he doesn't know where it is.

If it should fall into the wrong hands, or anyone's hands for that matter, he could be relocated. Or worse. Banned from being an agent. Why? For all the agency's data and secrets are on that device.

Perry slowly stands up and hops out of the bed. Quietly, he navigates his way through the dark and out of the house. He backtracks his entire day, starting from the walk to the doctor's building, to the moment he got back to the house.

A feeling of panic overcomes him as his eyes become heavy. He begins to doze off but tries to keep himself awake. He reaches a small pond in the park where all the fish are sleeping. All that watches him is a frog and the butterflies resting on the flowers.

He dips his hands in the water and scoops some up. He splashes the water in his face, trying to wake himself up. He wipes the water from his eyes and looks back into the pond. Standing there, right behind him, not even a foot away, is the dark shadow man.

Perry quickly turns and swings his arms at the figure. But when he looks, the man is gone.

Perry, now in terror, decides to call it a night. He makes himself a place to sleep using grasses, flowers, and the occasional leaf that falls off the nearby oak tree.

A tired platypus falls asleep, hoping that the recurring nightmares will have finally stopped.

But he dreams…

Perry is walking down a dirt road in the forest. All alone, in the dark of night. He frantically keeps turning around, in fear that something is following him… maybe the shadow figure.

He continues walking forward until he comes to a dead end. He turns around but sees that the path has vanished. It's getting darker. Colder. Scarier.

Perry is looking for a place to escape but to no avail. He turns around and standing there is the shadow figure.

He just stands there, not doing anything. Nothing to be said. Just… standing. And watching.

Then, Perry is jolted awake as the shadow figure disappears.

Perry, wishing that he was home, safe, sits there alone, in silence, wishing… hoping… wondering… dreaming…

This, is Perry all alone.


	3. Back To The City

"One… two… three… "

Perry wakes up from the dream, only to find that he is still alone. It is almost morning and Perry sees the sun coming up over the sea.

Perry stands up slowly and stretches out his arms. He yawns and then looks back down at where he was just laying. A green apple had just fallen down from the tree he had been laying under.

Perry bends down and picks the apple up off the ground. He wipes some of the dirt off of it and takes a bite. He yawns one more time then heads off towards the DEI building.

As he is walking along the sidewalk, the wind begins to kick up. It rustles the leaves in the passing trees and stirs a few papers from the nearby trash bins.

Perry continues walking along when, from atop a pine tree, comes the same bird that has been carrying the notes. Perry reaches out to grab the note but then realizes it has none. Instead, the bird perches itself on a picket fence around the park garden.

Perry stops next to it and watches it. It chirps three times and then flies across the street over to a trash bin sitting near a park bench. It lands on the trash bin then chirps three times. Perry not thinking anything of it turns and walks forward.

The bird chirps again, three times. Perry, realizing that the bird is trying to tell it something turns around. Perry carefully crosses the street and approaches the bird. As he nears, the bird jumps up and hovers above the trash bin. It chirps three times.

Perry looks into the trash bin and notices a newspaper sitting at the bottom. He reaches in, being careful not to touch the half eaten apples, banana peels, and napkins, and picks up the paper.

He takes a look at the front page and reads the heading, 'Shadow Figure Spotted'.

Under that was a picture of the shadow figure, but all you could see was a silhouette.

Perry was scared now. Even more than before.

The bird, sitting on the edge of the trash bin, chirped three more times. Perry looked up to see what it was doing this time and waited. It stretched out its foot in Perry's directions, referring to the paper.

Perry looked down at the newspaper then back up at the bird. The bird shook its head as if saying to look at it more.

Perry shuffled through the pages of the paper until a napkin fell out. He was about to throw it back into the trash bin when he realized a blue marking on it. He unfolded it and looked at what was written.

All that was written was the letter, 'A'. Perry, getting annoyed about all the random notes from nowhere, folded the napkin back up and put it in his hat. He also ripped off the front page of the newspaper and stuck that in his hat as well.

Perry nodded his head to the bird sitting atop the trash bin. It chirped three times and then flew off. Perry continued on the path to the DEI building, wondering what the paper could mean. He wondered if it was even a note at all or if it was just a random piece of garbage.

As Perry neared the building, he tried to remember every room he was in. He tried to remember what side of the building he had entered on. Then, he saw the window swinging in the breeze. He looked around that side of the building for his communicator. Under benches, in the tall grass, under rocks, but he found nothing.

He climbed back up to the open window and climbed inside. There, on a table near the door was his communicator… vibrating.

He had been sent a message and was not able to read it.

He thought to himself, "What if it was important? What if my friends are in trouble? What if- Get a hold of yourself! Just go over there and read the message."

Perry walks over to the device and picks it up. He opens the message box and reads the message.

"four… five… six…" the message read.

"What the hell does this mean?" he thought to himself. "I'm getting all these different notes and I don't even know what they're trying to tell me!"

Perry slams his fists on the nearby side table and one of the drawers pops open. Inside is a device that looks like his communicator but black. Attached to it is a note. Perry picks up the device and removes the note.

He opens it up and reads, "Take this, I thought it might be of use to you."

Perry places the note on the side table and looks at the device. He turns it over to see the word, 'Locate-inator'.

"Doof," he thinks to himself. He takes the device and his communicator and exits the building.

As he steps outside, a quick breeze of cold air hits him. He walks along the sidewalk until he comes to a bird sitting on a stop sign. He looks up at it and smiles. The bird looks at Perry and then right behind him. The bird chirps once in terror and then flies off in a hurry.

Perry quickly turns around to see the shadow figure practically hover over him. He gasps in fear, and then everything goes black.

When he awakes, he is laying in the park under the same tree he had been laying under before. He looks around to see what had just happened and how he got where he is now.

After a few moments of making sure he had everything and nothing was done to him, he notices that the Locate-inator is missing. He looks around for it, but it was nowhere to be found.

He figured that the shadow figure had taken it from him. He thinks that if the shadow figure wanted that device that bad, then who knows what it can do."

Perry starts his way back to his house after a long day of work. When he arrives, he doesn't go into the boys' room for he doesn't want to rouse them. Instead, he finds a place on the couch to sleep.

This, is Perry All Alone.

**His name is Perry the Platypus, also commonly known by his friends as, Agent P. A lonely little platypus missing the safe and comfort of his family. The closest things he has to a family; kidnapped. He's on a journey to find them and save them. But what he doesn't know is that his journey will take him on a trip, through the Nightmare Zone.**


	4. A Feeling Of Despair

"7… 8… 9…"

The next morning, Perry is woken by the construction outside. He stretches out his head to look out the sliding door. He looks all around the room to make sure that no one is watching.

When he sees that no one is there, he hops off of the couch and starts running at the wall.

He runs into a secret panel in the wall and slides down a narrow tube. He lands in his seat and Martin appears on screen.

"Agent P," Martin says in a firm tone. "Nice to see you again."

"As you already know, Major Monogram, Carl, and this Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz have disappeared. It appears that a hooded figure is running amok and causing havoc. This leads us to believe that this figure is the most likely to have kidnapped the three. His motive, we are unsure of as of yet. But we will keep a lookout for him."

Perry, energetic and ready for a brand new day, smirks. As the man on the screen speaks, he has no trouble listening and staying focused.

"Oh, and one more thing. That ray gun you brought back the other day, we have been examining it and we found fingerprints. Not only yours and this doctor, but of someone else as well. If you could get a fingerprint from the mysterious figure, that may help us solve this mystery."

Perry salutes Martin as he hops into his hover jet.

"Good luck, Agent P."

Perry rides his hover jet all the way to the park. As he approaches the DEI building, it starts to break down. Perry ejects and the hover jet crashes to the ground. As Perry slowly descends in his parachute, he notices a flock of birds in the sky.

The birds, to his surprise, are in the shape of a 'P'. He thinks that it must be another clue. So far he has two letters, 'A', and 'P'.

As he touches back down, he hears three chirps coming from behind him. He turns around and spots a bird on a park bench.

The bird starts to fly off into the distance. Perry, with no means of following it, due to the hover jet malfunction, blows it off. Perry reaches into his hat to see if he has any clues to reread. He finds a paper that reads, "I See You."

Perry turns it over and sees something he must have missed the first time. On the back of the paper is the number, '55'.

Perry thinks back, trying to remember the fifty-fifth time he encountered Doofenshmirtz. He tried to remember as he climbed the many stairs leading up to the doctor's floor. When he got there, he opened the door to his room. He remembered about the inventions being stored in the back room.

He ran over to the door and pulled it open. He rummaged through all the junk until he found what he was looking for.

The Invisinator!

Perry wondered what he could do with it. There was no point in turning himself invisible. And if there was something he needed to use it on to make it visible, he wouldn't know where it was anyway.

But, just for precautionary reasons, he took it with him anyway.

After he was done looking in Doof's building, he climbed out the window and slowly climbed down. As he descended, a feeling of despair overshadowed the city.

Perry begins to get drowsy. He sees a shadow of a large figure on the wall of the building. The last thing he hears before he faints is the single chirp of a small black bird.

In his dream, he sees the shadow figure walking in the park. He seems to be entering an invisible room of some sort. A bird chirps once from behind where Perry is standing and the shadow figure turns around.

The figure spots Perry and changes his direction. As the figure gets closer, Perry starts to weaken. His knees are wobbly and he is sweating uncontrollably. He sits behind a tree as the figure nears. He closes his eyes and the figure enters inside of him.

He can feel his heart stop. Then, when he wakes up, he finds himself lying right next to the DEI building.

He quickly gets up and runs home. As he runs, he thinks about why this is happening, and why this is happening to him. He thinks about who could possibly be the shadow figure.

Who? What? Why? These are all very good questions. Maybe Perry will find out soon… maybe after the mystery is solved… maybe never.

But one thing that he is sure of is that he needs to get home, safe. The only place that he is safe from that shadow figure. A place where he has a family. A place that he feels loved.

For Perry, home is a happy place.

This, is Perry all alone.

**Is everybody keeping up with the story so far? I hope you like it! Please Read And Review!**


	5. The Shadow Reveals

The next morning was an odd one for Perry. Instead of the usual, "I'm telling mom," from Candace, Perry was woken up by, "OK. Just don't get into trouble.

Now isn't that peculiar. Why would Candace say such a thing? Perry thought nothing of it and located his communicator. He went down to his lair and stopped to pick up the invisinator. As he was about to leave, Martin appeared on screen.

"Agent P, hold up." He said. Perry turned around and looked at the computer. "We are aware that you did not return in your hover jet. Is it still of any use?"

Perry shakes his head no and the man resumes talking. "Well then, we will begin working on another one for you. The maximum time will be two weeks. The minimum: four days.

Perry grins as he salutes the man. "Good luck, Agent P."

Perry runs to the elevator and jumps in. He feels weird saluting a man other than Major Monogram. But that's the least of his worries.

Perry finds himself on the damp, misty streets of downtown Danville. He can't help but wonder where he will have to go next.

Then it hits him. The park!

He remembers the dream he had about the building there. But going there now could prove to be fairly dangerous. He needs to find out what he's up against first.

Perry grabs an apple by a nearby tree and takes a bite.

Perry turns left at the next block and stops. He stands there, frozen. He drops his apple. At the end of the dark alley is the shadow figure, half in the mist, half not.

They just stand there watching. Then, the shadow figure raises one hand. Perry braces himself for just about anything.

The shadow figure lifted a finger and gestured for Perry to follow it. Perry reluctantly chose to follow, for he had no other choice if he wanted to solve this mystery.

He followed him slowly. They walked together for three minutes but what seemed like an hour.

"Do you know who I am?" The figure asked as he put his hand on Perry's shoulder.

Perry looked up to see a man in black, about six foot ten, looking down at him.

The man removed his hand and Perry quickly transferred the handprint onto the napkin in his hat using a trick he learned in training.

"I'm not who you think I am," he continued in a dark, deep voice. "I am not the shadow figure you are searching for.

Perry looked up at the man in confusion. "I am quite the opposite, actually."

The figure stops and put an arm out in front of Perry. "This is as far as I go," the figure says, turning to face Perry.

"This place, is it familiar?" The shadow says, kneeling down in front of Perry.

Perry looks around and after a while, shakes his head no. "Well, you should," the figure continues. "But I wouldn't blame you if you didn't."

The man stands up and turns to the area around him. Waving his arm once in a circular motion, he says, "All this land, from the mountains all the way in the west, to the sea, all the way in the east, isn't the world that you're used to living in."

Perry tries to sort everything out as he takes all the information in.

"Somehow, you have entered into your own mind. Your mind is a battlefield between good and evil and is being destroyed as we speak."

Perry holds his hand up to his head. He removes his hand and looks down at it. "You cannot feel it happening," says the man. "But as time goes on, little by little, your mind deteriorates. As every second passes, you are in danger of losing your memory. And if the evil side wins, you will be but a puppet, controlled by the dark side."

Perry is now standing there, silent, face in hands. He wonders how all of this even started. Why it's happening. And why him? Perry looks up at the figure in terror.

"Ah," the figure says aloud. "Do not be afraid, for I am not with the dark ones."

Perry's nerves calm slightly, but he is still horrified by everything that has been happening over the course of the past few days.

"Alas, it is time for us to part. But, before you go, I want to give you something."

The figure reaches through the black robe and fidgets his hand around.

"Ah, here it is." The figure pulls his hand out and reaches out at Perry. He takes his hand and Perry opens his fingers. The shadow places the object in his hand.

"Please," he says. "Do not lose this. If the evil ones should get a hold of this, we will all be doomed to eternal damnation."

The man releases his grip and the object falls into Perry's hand. Perry looks down at the object and sees a stone. Not just any stone. The stone is a silverfish white color with what looks like a golden letter 'L' embedded in the rock.

"Take it. When the time comes to use it, you will know."

Perry nods his head as he puts the stone away. He turns to face the path again and starts forward.

"Perry the Platypus, wait," Perry stops dead in his tracks and turns to face the figure. "I almost forgot to tell you. There is another figure that looks exactly like me. Beware of him, for if he should get you, he will also get the stone."

Perry nods his head and salutes the man. He then turns and continues forward. As Perry disappears into the mist, a faint whisper can be heard.

"Good luck… Agent P."

A lone platypus without a sense of direction continues forward on the path and the journey ahead of him. Unaware of what all the clues mean, he hesitates as he returns home. Should he go back and see if that man is still there, or should he continue on, finding all the secrets out by himself?

This is what runs through the platypus's mind as he travels through the darkest regions of his own thoughts, into a world unknown.

This, is Perry all alone.


	6. The Tunnel Of Dreams

"10… 11… 12…"

Perry walks for miles, hours, wondering if he'll ever get back to the real world. His eyes, heavy. He is drowsy now. As he walks along, he can see images flying past him. To his right he sees the bird with a note in its beak. He reaches for it, but when he touches it, it fades away.

"13… 14… 15…"

He looks to the ground, still walking and shakes his head. When he looks up again, he sees something else. On his left is a black bird sitting atop a small shrub. It chirps once and disappears.

"16… 17… 18…"

The chirp of the bird is ringing in Perry's ears. He holds his hands up to them until the ringing settles. He looks again, this time to the right. He sees the bird nest in the tree. The baby birds are back and so is the mother. Perry smiles briefly as they disappear.

"19… 20… 21…"

He looks to his left and sees the building in the park. Perry stops walking and stares at the image. Then, there is an ear piercing shriek that seems to be coming from the building. Perry's skin is crawling as he starts a steady sprint forward. He can still hear the little girl's scream as he continues to run.

"22… 23… 24…"

After a while, he is slowed down to a walk. No images have passed recently except for the frog and butterflies he saw in the park. Perry is practically dragging himself along as he dozes off and his head hangs down. He keeps himself awake and picks his head up just in time to see a small black dot approaching him from ahead.

Perry stops and starts breathing very heavily now. As the image nears him, he begins to make out what it is. But as it is only fifty feet away, Perry realizes what it is. He sees a long black robe flapping in the breeze and a shadowy hood over the image's head. Perry starts running back, away from the figure.

But the figure is too quick for Perry and soon catches up with him. It is at this very moment that Perry realizes the figure was not an image. The shadow figure prepares to attack him as Perry takes one last breath. He closes his eyes and turns around, hoping the shadow figure will miss and go right past him.

A burst of light suddenly and almost immediately fills the area. Perry opens one eye to see the good figure fade in right in front of him. The shadow figure hits the other instead of Perry. As soon as he is hit, the shadow figure disappears. The figure of light flies back and skids across the ground. Perry rushes over to him and a single tear forms in his eye.

"Do not worry," a screechy voice announces. "For I will be alright. Go, you must hurry. The shadow figure will soon find out that you are not dead and return. If you leave here in time, the location device that he robbed you of will not work anymore. Hurry! GO!"

Perry quickly gets up and runs off. He looks behind him to see the figure fade away as if he had been made of dust. Perry returns his attention to the path ahead and runs faster.

"25… 26… 27…"

As Perry runs he sees a light appear in the distance. As he nears the light, he can see the city of Danville. He approaches the end and looks back. He nods his head as if saying 'Thank you' and looks ahead. He steps out of the tunnel and turns around. But it is gone. Sitting in front of him is a busy street in Downtown Danville. He wonders where he could have just been.

He thinks of all the things he saw in that tunnel. The bird with the note. The black bird. The mother bird and her babies. The building in the park. He thinks to himself that these are all things that he has seen before. From this, he comes up with a possible answer. His mind. In fact, that's probably where he's been this whole time, and probably still is, given his current dilemma.

Perry is brought back from his daze by a bird, chirping three times. He looks around and sees it flying towards him. In its talons, Perry notices a small paper. Red on one side, silver on the other. The bird flies down and lands on Perry's fedora. Perry reaches up to the bird and grabs the paper.

Perry notices that it is a candy wrapper, not just any paper. A 'Three Musketeers' candy bar with special wrapping, probably for the holidays. On the silvery side is the numbers, "28… 29… 30…" Perry, confused, reaches up to see if the bird was carrying anything else, but it had already flown away.

Perry looks once more at the candy wrapper then puts it with all the other notes and equipment; under his trademark fedora.

Perry turns around and spots a small dark figure about the size of a toad or a squirrel. As the creature sees Perry looking at it, it scurries off. Perry readjusts his hat and runs in the same direction. Perry follows the creature around until it gets to an abandoned warehouse. Perry chases it into an alleyway and traps it. The creature turns around and waves goodbye at Perry. It then melts into the ground and disappears.

Perry looks around where it just was to see if it's still there. As he comes up with nothing, he exits the alleyway. He turns around to see the abandoned warehouse. Coming from the shed like doors, is a small glimmer of light. Perry hears an odd sound coming from inside that sounds like muffled breathing. He approaches the door and puts is ear to the door.

He hears talking, but it's hard to make some of it out.

"Shh, shh. Quiet," a voice says from inside.

Perry backs up slowly, hoping for no one to come out. But then, he hits something with his back. He turns around slowly to see a big round shadow standing behind him.

The shadow puts his mouth up to Perry's ear and says, "Be afraid, be very afraid."

Perry closes his eyes, hoping to escape this place. He reaches into his hat and pulls out the stone. A blinding light pierces the night sky. When Perry opens his eyes back up, it is now morning. He is all alone. No shadows to take him away. No images flying at him. Nothing. It's just him. Standing there. By that abandoned warehouse. In silence. In solitude.

He replaces the stone from where he got it and looks around. He wonders how he had gotten there. He thinks that it must have been the stone. How was he to know? He was just trying to keep it safe.

"BZZZZ! BZZZZ!"

Perry's communicator starts to vibrate. He takes it out and reads the message.

"Get Out Of There… NOW!"

Perry frantically puts the communicator back and runs back home. As he runs a huge explosion appears before him. He turns around and sees the fireball blazing before him. The light from the fire glows in Perry's eyes as he runs away.

Perry then gets another message telling him to report back to headquarters. Putting the communicator back, he does just that.

When he gets back to the house he enters his lair and plants himself down in his seat. Martin appears on screen and, in a worried but calm tone, says, simply, "The Shadow Figure is here."

This, is Perry all alone.

**Hey thanks for reading this far everybody! I didn't think this would be a good story… but apparently, people like it! And I'm having fun writing it so, expect more soon!**


	7. The Nightmare's Return

"We are sorry to inform you that the shadow figure has penetrated our defenses. A bug in our security system allowed access to all our data. But it seems that the figure only took data that had pertained to you."

Martin continued talking as Perry looked down in depression. "We don't know why he came or what he wants with you, but all we know is that this mission is too dangerous, even for you. For safety measures, we are moving you to a safe location far away from here."

Perry looks up at the screen as the man says, "I-I'm sorry, Agent P.

Perry jumps up as two robotic arms spring out of the wall on either side of him. He lands on one of them and smashes them together. Perry jumps into the air and lands in his hover jet.

"Agent P, stop! We haven't finished working out the bugs and kinks yet! Noooo!"

Perry starts the hover jet up and takes off. Thoughts run through Perry's mind as he flies off towards the direction of the now half moon. Someone from the agency would never do a thing as to remove an agent from a mission by force. He has to be a fake, he just has to be.

Before Perry does anything else, he has to find out who this man actually is and what he's up to. Perry heads off in the direction of the nearest available computer; the Doof's place.

As he is flying, an alarm starts to sound. Perry looks down at the radar screen and sees a dot labeled 'Shadow' right in front of him. Perry looks everywhere in front of him, but sees nothing. He tries hitting it. But that only makes cup holders pop out and disturbs some loose change.

Perry pushes the cup holders back in disgust, questioning what he would ever need to use cup holders for during a time like this. But little does Perry know that the same shadow he trapped in an alleyway is now hanging onto the underside of his hover jet.

Perry arrives at the DEI building and lands his hover jet near a small pine and some shrubs. He covers it with grass and leaves, hoping the shadows won't find it. He leaves the seat open and hops in the hover jet. He pushes the eject button and flies up to the doc's window. Perry tries to pull the window open but it's locked.

"How did somebody get into the doc's room without a key? They couldn't have locked the windows from the outside… could they?" He pulls out a small laser shooter and points it to the building. He pulls the trigger but nothing happens. He hits it in his hands saying, "Stupid thing. Why is all my equipment breaking? Oh well. Looks like I'll have to use the front door."

Perry hops off the side of the building and walks to the corner of the building. He peeks around the corner only to witness the same shadow he had almost been captured by walk out the front door.

"What the hell is he doing here? The doc's room! He must have gotten inside!" Perry waits until the shadow is out of sight and enters the building. He climbs all the way up to the doctor's floor and approaches the door. He jiggles the knob but it's locked. "That shadow thing must have locked it from the inside. But, how did he get out then?" Perry wonders about these things as he listens to see if anyone or anything else is still inside.

After securing the room, he breaks down the door and falls in. He rushes over to all of Doofenshmirtz's stuff looking for his laptop. When he finds it, he places it on a side table, hits the power button and... nothing.

"Where's that damn charger?" Perry asks himself. He looks through the boxes of junk and locates the plug. He runs over to the side table and plugs the charger in. He hits the power button and... "Yes, it worked." He looks through the computer system as minutes tick away. Finally, he thinks he found something.

"Marvin Ticen, a wanted criminal associated with the infamous shadow figure. He served time in prison after a shooting but was broken out by a horde of dark creatures." Perry continues to read the data file as he gets the chills. "He is known as Martin Vince by many."

Perry realizes that the letters in Martin Vince are the same letters in Marvin Ticen.

The file ends there, saying, "There is no more information in this data file."

Perry feels a hand on his shoulder and flinches. He turns around to see one of the figures standing there.

"Do not fret," it says in a calm manner. "For I am not the evil one."

Perry steps out in front of the figure and looks up at it. In one fell swoop, it swings part of its robe around shrouding Perry in the darkness. They both disappear into thin air. A few papers are blown off of the side table.

"Do you know why I have come for you?" the figure says as they appear to be floating in the darkness. Perry shakes his head no and listens to the figure. "We have found a portal between the real world and your mind. These portals are the only means of returning. They will never disappear, but they can be weakened or redirected. If the dark ones should get to it before we do, they will fill it with darkness, turning it into a one way portal to the evil side of your mind. I cannot explain anymore, for the time to depart has arrived. The portal may be taken over already. You need to go now."

All of a sudden, they appear in an open field. In the middle of it all is a raggedy old shed.

"There," the man says, pointing towards the shed. "That is where the portal is located. You must be the one to go, for we cannot exit your mind."

Perry nods his head as he slowly opens up the sheds wooden doors. "Be careful, now," the man says as Perry closes the door behind him. He finds himself walking down a long pathway, dark and scary. Not knowing how to get back to the real world, he continues to walk forward.

He reaches a certain point and stops. The next thing he knows, he is standing in the middle of the park. The trees are green and so is the grass. A warm breeze passes by Perry as he stands there, looking at the peaceful city of Danville, the way it should be.

Perry looks at the cars passing by down the two way street. But then, something disturbs him. He looks across the street to see the shadow figure standing there. A truck passes in front of them and the figure disappears.

"How could this be happening?" he thinks to himself. "I thought that figure said that they couldn't exit my mind. Maybe… maybe the dark creatures already got to the portal. Dammit, that's probably it."

Out of nowhere, Perry hears three chirps of a bird coming from above him. He looks up to see a bird sitting in a pine tree. It flies across the street, lands on a trash bin, and chirps three times.

"No, this can't be happening to me," Perry thinks to himself as he finds himself having a major case of déjà vu. "This just can't be happening."

This, is Perry all alone


	8. A Different Timeline

As the leaves blew down the road, a helpless little Perry stood there in shock. Wanting to get away from all this, he thought of a plan. "OK," he said. "If this is what I think it is and I want to get away from the Shadow figure, then I can't go through the woods or to the doctor's place." Perry looks around for a place to flee then spots the perfect place; the cemetery.

Perry walks over in that direction as he thinks about how good or bad of a decision he made. "The perfect place for strange things to happen." As he thinks this, another thought also crosses his mind. "I don't know if I'm back in the real world right now, but I do have a hunch that I'm reliving the day that I first saw the shadow figure."

As Perry arrives, it has become dark. He looks out at all the scattered tombstones, spattered with dust, bugs, leaves, and dirt. Perry walks up to the gate and squeezes through a small opening. He looks around at random headstones.

"So," a deep voice says from behind Perry. "You have decided to journey on your own." Perry turns around and standing before him is the figure of light. "Strange," he says, picking up a leaf off the ground. "The graveyard can be a very unusual place." The leaf he was holding regains its green color as Perry watches in awe. "Tell me," he says, glancing at Perry. "What is it that brought you here?" Perry shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. "Sometimes, the most random decision can be the most helpful one. I knew that you would come here, searching for answers. Come, I think you should see something."

The shadow figure walks further into the cemetery, followed closely by Perry. He stops at two headstones looks at Perry. Perry looks up at the figure and then at the two headstones. Perry kneels down and approaches the headstones. He wipes the dust off of them and reads the writing on them Written on the two stones are the names of Perry's parents. Perry sheds a tear and bows his head down.

"Come, t'wil do us no good to fret about the past. But this is not the reason I have come to visit you on this dark night. I have come to talk to you about the shadow figure. We have recently discovered that the shadow figure has been attempting to split himself into several different parts, much like horcruxes. He seals part of his soul in an item and another part in another and so on. But before I delve deeper into the subject, I need to ask you a few questions first."

Perry nods his head as the man speaks. "Do you remember the day of the explosion, the day you went through the portal in the run down shed?" Perry nods his head as the figure continues. "This is the day that all the Slivers must be found by. A Sliver is the object or creature or just about anything that the shadow figure hides part of his soul in. If all of the Slivers are not retrieved by then, you must go back to the portal in the shed to restart your journey. You can..."

"Shh!" a voice says, appearing to be coming from behind a head stone.

"You must go now. It is not safe here anymore." Perry nods his head and runs off. "Farewell, and may your journey be a successful one. The fate of the world is in your hands."

As Perry runs off, he wonders where he will search for the first Sliver. When he arrives back in town, it is day again. He walks over to a bench and sits down. Atop a stop sign is a black bird. Perry remembers what happened hear the last time as the bird chirps twice and flies away. Perry quickly turns around, looking for the shadow figure... but it doesn't appear. Perry breathes out heavily and wonders why the shadow figure didn't come this time. He scratches his head and feels something, actually it's what he doesn't feel that catches his attention. The Locate-inator! He didn't get it this time so the shadow figure didn't come this time either.

Perry hurries over to the doctor's building hoping that the device is still there. He thinks that possibly, it could be one of the Slivers the figure of light had told him about. As he enters his room, he realizes that he hadn't gotten the Invisinator yet or his communicator either. So he grabs them as well and heads out.

"Maybe I should get all the key items," Perry thinks to himself as he walks towards the park. "So I have them all. They might come in handy at any random time. So I already have the Locate-inator, invisinator, and the slow-motion-inator I will have no matter how many times I have to repeat this process. So next, I think I'll go get the stone. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to escape that shadow creature."

Perry runs off to the park and approaches the forest. He looks around but sees nothing. He reluctantly enters and searches for the figure of light. As he walks through the dark and creepy forest he frantically turns around to see if anyone or anything is following him. He gets to a dead end and turns around, only to see that the path he was just on is no longer there.

"No, this can't be happening. This time, there's no way to wake up when things get bad... or is there?" Perry turns around to see the shadow figure standing there, watching. It lifts up its arm to the night sky and Perry readies himself to attack. All of a sudden, the trees behind Perry sink into the ground and a path appears in their place.

"You shouldn't be wandering around in the forest on your own like this, the shadow figure could get you." Perry is relieved to find out that it is only the figure of light and not the shadow figure. All of a sudden, Perry finds himself standing in the park, near the place which he once used to make an overnight bed for himself. Perry is thankful that the figure helped him out of the forest but annoyed that he did not give him the stone.

Perry is now confused and out of ideas on what to do next. He heads back to the house and enters his lair. As he descends in his elevator, he remembers that Martin isn't who he wants Perry to believe he is. So when he asks him how the day was, Perry responds in the typical fashion as if he did not know that Martin was evil.

Perry quietly makes his way up to the boys' room and lies down at the foot of Ferb's bed. He thinks about what's going on and all the dreams he's been having. Maybe it wasn't the shadow figure after all. Maybe it was actually the figure of light that he's been dreaming about.

As he thinks about these things, a single bird outside the window chirps rapidly. Perry feels a great sense of danger overpowering. The bird stops and the despair goes away. An act of the shadow figure? Maybe. The figure of light? Probably not. As Perry sits there, he thinks about what he's going to do next. What with the shadow figure, the figure of light, the Slivers, and everything else that he has to keep track of.

All these things, all inside Perry's mind, battling to the death, or at least until his mind is destroyed or taken over. He hopes desperately that the figure of light will return to help him on his way, and guide him through the hard times and dark forces that he will encounter on his journey.

As Perry falls asleep, he sees a shooting star outside of the window. He wishes that all of this could just disappear and go away forever.

These are the last thoughts of a brave but scared platypus as he falls asleep, only to wake up to another life risking day. On the other end of his slumber is another day of hope, tragedies, and everything that comes his way.

This, is Perry all alone.


	9. A Caretaker's Palace

"Perry! Perry! Oh, there you are Perry." Perry suddenly wakes up from his good night's sleep only to be picked up by Phineas. "Hey Ferb, has Perry been acting a little strange lately, as if something is bothering him?"

Ferb shrugs as Phineas puts Perry down. The two of them walk out of the room as Perry pulls out his fedora. He lies near the foot of the bed and rolls under. He falls through a tube and lands in his chair. Perry reaches for the button to turn the screen on but hesitates. He decides not to turn it on and instead hops into his hover jet. He flies off towards the park but stops before he gets there; remembering the first time it broke down.

He looks around for a second then spots the bird. It chirps three times then flies off. Perry flies up in the hover jet and follows it. He follows it for ten minutes... twenty... thirty... sixty... one-twenty, and finally the bird stops at a building in the middle of nowhere. Perry hops out of the hover jet as the bird chirps three times and flies away. Perry looks around to find himself standing in the middle of a desert. In the distance is a building which looks to be almost completely buried in sand. Perry runs over to the structure to take a closer look. He notices that the building was actually about the size of a castle. All that was sticking out was a few of the marble watchtowers. Perry spots a window on one of them and pokes his head inside. Down below is what looks to be a bottomless pit. A strong gust of wind makes Perry lose his balance and he falls in. Seven seconds later, he hits the ground.

Perry picks up his head and looks around. He sees countless shelves lined with books. Everywhere he turns is just another row of bookshelves that seem to go on forever. He stands up and wipes the dirt and dust off of himself. He turns around and starts walking down an aisle. In each aisle is about five hundred smaller aisles and in them, five hundred more. It just goes on forever.

Perry turns a corner and sees a metal spiral stairwell at the end of the aisle. He starts walking towards it as he looks at all the bookcases. When he arrives at the staircase, he looks down to see it fade to darkness. He starts walking down anyway. He walks and walks until he finally reaches a lower level. On this floor are bookcases filled with even more books. They are so dusty that you can't even read the writing on their spines.

Perry decides to take a book out and place it on the floor, making a path to get back. After taking out the first three or four books, he turns the corner. Standing before him is a huge owl about eight times his size. It looks down at Perry and in a booming voice says, "What is your business here?"

Perry, unable to actually talk, thinks, "I have come here by following a bird from Danville. I need to find these things called Slivers and I thought that maybe one was in here."

The owl responds by saying, "I am the caretaker of this library. I can read the minds of anyone who passes through here. I require this ability for only the true hearted may enter. I have decided that you are not completely true of heart. You want to destroy this evil spirit you call the shadow figure, yes?"

Perry thinks, "Not exactly, I just want to get out of this place."

"I see," the owl says, looking at all the books placed upon the shelves. "Come with me. You have much to learn."

Perry follows the caretaker through a maze of books until they come to an aisle with very few books on the shelves.

"This is the section for information on the very situation that you are in. As you can see, our knowledge is very limited on the subject. But I think we can negotiate something. For your knowledge about this subject, I am willing to offer you the necessary items that you need to escape this place. Do we have a deal?"

Perry thinks about the offer he is given for a moment then nods his head in agreement.

"Good. Then you shall start divulging all that you know immediately."

Perry begins telling the owl of the shadow figure, the figure of light, the Slivers, the birds, the Tunnel of Dreams, the time traveling, all the nightmares he's been having, Martin Vince, and everything else he can think of. When he has finished telling the owl all that he knows. The owl stands up and thanks him for this information. He turns around and waves his wing towards the empty bookcases. Eight books worth of information stock the shelves and he turns back to face Perry.

"I am putting my trust in you," the owl says putting his face next to Perry's. "Do not waste it."

The owl turns around and quickly flies off down the aisle. Perry hears a noise behind him and turns around. Appearing on the used to be bare wall is an old fashioned archway door. Perry looks around to see if the owl is still there… but he is gone. He approaches the door and reaches out for the handle. He turns it and slowly pushes the door open.

Inside is another endless room filled with bookcases filled to the brim. All the way at the other end of the room, Perry spots what looks to be a pedestal in the shape of a hand. On top of it is an old, brown, torn up, century old book. A small light emanating from the stained glass window behind it shines on the pedestal.

Perry walks forward a bit then hears the owl speak again.

"Wait!" it says in a loud echoing voice. "Before you may pass, you must complete a few tasks. These tasks are designed to prove if you are true of heart, keen, powerful, brave, and any other thing that you could possibly imagine. Your first task: Evasion. Good luck."

All of a sudden the room is pitch black. As Perry stands there he wonders what's going on. Who is this owl caretaker? Is there even a Sliver to be found here in the first place?

Perry, preparing himself for a task, knowing nothing about what to do, stands there, in the dark. He is in that room, hopefully alone, waiting for the owl to speak once more. Hopefully he can get the Sliver and get out before that explosion back at Danville. What day is it? The third day? Oh, what does it matter? He'll never be able to find all the Slivers before the massive explosion.

This is what Perry thinks about before he starts his first task. The tasks; they were so sudden. All he did is walk into the room and now he has to do these weird tasks. This is really beyond what Perry had first imagined what he had to do when the figure of light had told him about the Slivers.

Perry, ramped and ready to go, stands there, in the dark, waiting… listening… wondering… What will happen next?

This, is Perry. Alone? Probably not this time. But does he hope so? He most certainly does.


	10. The First Task: Evasion

**Hey, sorry about the break but I was distracted... for a long time... on numerous occations... often... but I'm doing the next part now so thank you everyone who was patient!**

A slight sound tapped rhythmically at the other end of the room. All of a sudden, it became faster. Not until about a minute later did Perry realize that it was the echoing of his heartbeat thumping against his chest. Perry approaches the pedestal at the end of the room slyly, trying not to disturb the things he could only imagine to be in that enclosed room with him.

Perry slowly feels his way to a nearby bookcase and peers around it. He sees but another stained glass window at the far end. He peeks nehind himself and spots one more window in the distance. Perry could only imagine that there is another window above the doorway in which he entered into this room.

Perry starts toward the pedastal with the book, peeking around every bookcase before passing by. As he approaches the stand, he feels a slight breeze squeezing through the tiny opening in the window above. Perry reaches for the book but stops himself. He notices a book laying open in the corner of the room.

He hesitates for a moment but comes to this conclusion: "If my hunch is correct, taking the book on the pedestal will probably be a trap, while the one in the corner is probably the one that is a kay or clue to getting out of here or whatever you want to think."

Perry lowers his arm and walks calmly but nerve rackingly towards the book in the corner. Perry sees a spiderweb in front of him stretching from the window to the book upon the pedestal and ducks under it. He picks up the book and quickly looks around. Nothing appears to have happened so he reverts his attention back to the book. He clichedly blows all of the dust off of the front cover of the book. He notices that there is no title or anything. He opens it up and a cloud of dust pops up to greet him. He coughs up some dust and swats at the particles in the air. He looks back at the book to find that there is no writing inside either.

Perry closes the book and turns around. He walks forward and steps right into the spiderweb he had dodged earlier. The spider web is denser than he had imagined. It yanks the book from the pedestal off its stand and onto the floor. All of a sudden, Perry sees iron bars reveal themselves in front of the windows, preventing any form of escape through them. Perry looks down at the spiderweb only to notice that it's not a spiderweb ata all. It was just cleverly weaved pieces of string strung together.

Perry starts toward the other side of the room hoping to find something of use there, but to no avail. He turns around and looks up at the window he had just been standing by and catches a glimpse of a shadow or silhouette if you will pass by. Perry holds the book out in front of him wrapping his arms around it using it as a shield.

Perry looks up to see that another book has appeared on the pedestal he is now next to. He looks down at the book in his hands and back up at the stand. He gets the idea that he has to swap the book for the other one. Perry hears another noise coming from above. He looks up and sees that the ceiling is now lowering at an alarming rate. He quickly switches the two books and looks at the other end of the room. Another pedestal has appeared. But this time, Perry has alot of ground to cover before he gets to the third and hopefully last pedestal.

Perry starts running for the stand when a brutal force pushes through the books resting on the nearby bookcase onto Perry. He drops the book he was holding and falls to the ground. He gets back up and looks around for his book. He sees the one with no writing on it and picks it up. He starts running again put slips on an open book in his way. He looks back at it and to his surprise, it is blank. He looks back down at his book and reaches for another. He opens it up to reveal nothing inside. He sighs and tries to grab as many as he can.

He runs with them all the way to the other side of the room and drops them near the pedestal. He places one book on the stand but apparently it was the wrong one for part of the floor breaks away and falls into what seems to be a bottomless pit. Perry's eyes widen as he tries more books. With each one he places on the stand the less room he has to work with. He remembers that the ceiling is also lowering as well and tries to be even quicker. As he is down to the last few books, the shadow of the man thrusts the book out of Perry's hands. It once again in a cliched manner falls down and lands on a narrow stone pillar previously hidden beneath the floor.

Perry, in several swift moves, jumps down and retrieves the book from its resting place. He hops back up and places the book on the pedestal... but it's the wrong one! He frantically tries the other books but as he places the last one on the stand, he finds that none of them are the right one. He looks back over to the other side of the room and notices one more book laying on the floor. Perry looks at what is left of the floor and crumbles to his knees. There is no way he could get across there in time. He looks back up at the ceiling, just five feet away from him, and cries.

It is at this moment that Perry comes to a very much needed recollection of his thoughts. "What did that owl say before, 'Evasion?' What do these books have to do with anything? This isn't evasion... THIS IS!"

Perry quickly gets up and starts running for the hole in the floor. He slides underneath aiming for the stone structure in the middle. His hat flies off and lands on the edge of the floorboards. He, once again a cliche, reaches back and grabs his hat with half a second to spare before the ceiling reaches the bottom. Perry looks around and the floor around him rises from the pit below. Torches appear hanging on the wall and light themselves as they show the way to a wooden door at the end of the cave.

It is damp down there and Perry is happy to still be alive. He walks toward the door and slowly presses upon it, opening it slightly. He peeks through the presently ajar door and notices a ray of light resembling a circle in the sky. He opens it just a bit farther and sees grass on the ground and trees, birds flying through the air, and a stream not to far away.

From out of nowhere, Perry hears the booming voice of the owl again, "Good job, very good indeed. I'm impressed you got past my first challenge. But you'll never succeed now! Task Two: Deception! Be off with you!"

Perry looks around and smiles, happy to be out of that dark room and that he can finally see again.

This, is Perry All Alone, except for the few birds and bess flying around him... and, no. Not those birds and bees.

**Hey guys I hope you all liked it. Again, sorry for such a long break but, sometimes that's how it's gotta be. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!**


	11. The Second Task: Deception Part 1

As Perry looks around, he feels the warm rays coming from the sun and his back gets the cold blast of air emerging from the cave behind him. He walks forward a little to get out of the cold air's path and glances at everything around him. Trees in the distance, grass, rivers. Perry feels at peace here... but something is amiss. Perry walks toward the river and kneels down beside it. He looks at his reflection in the water and sees a cricket jump up onto his hat. The cricket stretches down to see Perry eye to eye and smiles.

"Well, y'all don't look famil'er," the cricket says, hopping off of his hat and onto the ground. "So, what be yer name, son?"

Perry replies with a chatter and stares at the cricket. The cricket replies by saying, "Oh, ah see. Y'all don't know how ter communcate c'rectly do yer? Well dat dere's no probem, mister. As y'all can see, I"m jist leernin' all me grammars, too!"

Perry looks at the cricket, struggling not to slap the cricket for speaking the way it is. "Hey, you knows what? Why don't y'all come o'er to ma place fer a while, now. It'll be safer when da sun gone darn to settin'?"

Perry thinks about this offer a while, and how if he does go down to her place, that he'll have to listen to her all day... and what if she's not alone? But, he decides to accept the crickets offer.

"Well dat's just dandy, darlin'! Well, all jist call up the fam'y raght now!"

Perry hesitantly follows her down to her home. He passes by all different kinds of places. The beaver dam, the bird's tree, the anthill...

Perry looks forward and sees a huge stalk of grass about five times bigger than the average man. Perry's jaw drops as he looks in amazement. The cricket hops up to the grass stalk and pushes a tiny button opening up an automatic door in the grass. She hops inside and turns around to face Perry.

"Well, come on," she says. "No need to be shy, now." Perry lays down and looks at the small opening in the grass, thinking how she expects him to fit through there. "Oh, dat's right. Well, y'all to big an' tall ter fit yerself trough here. You 'don wait one moment. d'i'll be right back. Don move now."

The cricket hops further into the grass and the door closes by itself. A few seconds later, the door opens and out hop two more crickets. The door closes again and the crickets raise their heads up to see Perry's face.

"Well, I'll be," the male cricket says. "It's the blue fairy!"

"Honey," the cricket that brought Perry here says. "Now, what I gon don an tell'd you erbout say'n dem sterpid quotes from all dose movies you's been watchin'?"

"Sorry, dear," he says.

"Anyway, this is Beyill."

"Would you stop saying it like that," he says. "They're gonna start thinking that's my actual name!" He turns to look at Perry and says, "My name's Bill. My wife's got a speech impediment, you see, and..."

"Oh, Bill! He don care 'bout all dat nonsinse. Well, this o'er here is Jackson, he's are on'y child. Oh, dear me! I competley fergot to interdoce meself. My name be Wanda... SIKE! Get it? Wanda, Syke... Oh ne'ermand. Ma real name is Lynn, but y'all cin call me Lynn."

"Darling as much as I love you, you make no sense whatsoever."

Perry looks at all of them repeating their names in his head so he won't forget them, for he has a feeling he will be with them for a while.

"Well y'all jist make y'allself comferble. Ima make zum eats fer y'all so y'all don spool y'all's foods, k?"

"Sweety, would you please stop saying y'all all the time, it's getting kind of annoying."

The two walk back into the stalk of grass, still going at it. The door closes and Jackson looks back up at Perry. "They're not always like this. Just thought I'd tell ya."

It's silent for a few moments as Perry nods his head. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you then. Catch you later." Jackson walks back into the grass and the door closes behind him.

Perry leans up against the stalk and sighs. This is what he's going to have to put up with for the next part of his journey. Well, at least there's one thing that's good coming from all of this. It is at this time and this place that Perry knows and accepts the fact that...

This, is Perry All Amiss.

**Sorry this one is so short, but there's gonna be a couple chapters about the second task. So, if you put them all together for one chapter... that's a pretty good sized chapter in my book. There I go again rambling. Anyway, I hope y'all... heh 'y'all. I hope you all like it so far and stay tuned for the next chapter THANKS!**


	12. The Second Task: Deception Part 2

**OH MY GOD CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT I'M ACTUALLY CONTINUING THE STORY AND PUTTING ANOTHER CHAPTER UP AFTER MORE THAN A YEAR OF JUST NOTHING? I CAN'T EITHER! WELL, HERE IT IS AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT!**

As Perry sits there in the field, he finds it might be helpful to himself and the audience if he recaps what he has to do. One day, a man named Martin Vince contacted him and told him that Major Monogram, Carl, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz were missing. He sent Perry on a mission to look for clues to what had happened to them. Through his travels, he spotted a shadow figure and a figure of light, who both wanted him for their own reasons. He discovered that Martin Vince is actually a man named Marvin Ticen who is in Cahoots with the shadow figure. He saw many a bird and received several notes and papers from unknown sources. He has obtained a few items including the letter "A", the letter "P", the invisinator, the slow-motion-inator, the locate-inator, and at one time, a stone with the letter "L" engraved onto it. He had followed the figure of light to various places including the Tunnel of Dreams and an old shack which appears to have sent Perry back in time. He met one or two shadow creatures and was informed that he needed to find these things called slivers before a certain date.

He followed a bird to the middle of a desert where he came upon a buried castle of some sort. When he entered inside he found himself surrounded by miles of books every which way. He met an owl, the caretaker of the place, which he swapped his information with him in exchange for a way out of the place. But he only sent him into a dark room where he informed him that he must first complete a few tasks before he may depart. Perry barely completed the first task he was faced with and opened a door into a grassy plain, where he rests now, his exact whereabouts, unknown.

As Perry thinks about all that he's been through, he looks around for a place he can go to think quietly to himself without the chance of the cricket family interrupting him. He looks over to a stream and sees a bridge. Behind it, scattered, are a few fruit trees in rows, appearing to have been planted specifically. But by who?

He quietly got up as to not disturb the crickets and walked over to the bridge. It was made of spruce? Oak? Pine? He didn't know. It wasn't any type of wood he had seen before. It had a slight arch to it over the water and the handrails were cast from an iron-like metal. The hand bars were covered in a gold film held up by seven crimson bars on either side. The nails holding the wooden planks together were not rusted at all. Maybe the bridge was just constructed not too long ago. Under the bridge was a tiny dip about two inches deep where the water spilled over the stones and created the sound of the running water.

As Perry touched his hand upon the golden handle bars of the bridge, he noticed that the metal was warm to the touch, as if someone had just been holding onto it.

"But the bridge has been in my view for a few minutes now," Perry thought to himself. "If anyone or anything had been on this bridge, I would have seen them."

Perry placed his foot onto the first of seven wooden planks of the bridge and pushed his weight onto it to see if it was safe to cross. He put his other hand onto the other handle bar and stepped onto the second board. And the third. Then, the fourth. But what was that? The water in the stream; it appears to have stopped flowing. Perry wanted to look behind him but remembered what the owl had said "Deception".

"This is just a distraction. The water is still flowing, it's just decepting and it doesn't sound like it is. I need to focus and not get paranoid."

Perry stepped onto the fifth, sixth, and seventh boards and stopped dead in his tracks. Everything was silent. Not even Perry's heartbeat could be heard or his breath. He looked down as his foot hovered above the dirt on the other side of the bridge, still holding onto the bars. He didn't know what, but there was something keeping him from walking any further.

"Deception."

"Deception..."

Perry worked up some saliva and spit at the ground. The droplet fell to the dirt and phased through the earth. Perry stepped back, grasping the bridge tightly, and was thankful that he did not step any further. He turned around to see that the bridge he is standing on now branches out into darkness, an empty space.

"So, I have a choice to make. Either try walking on what "seems" to be a field of trees in front of me, or go back the way that "was" a safe field behind me."

Perry hesitates and thinks to himself, "Neither way is the correct way. It's deceptive in the way that the paths seem like they're either there or not there, but it is also deceptive in that these two paths are both the wrong choice. Yeah, that seems complicated enough to be the solution. So the only other way is... over the bars."

Perry let's go of the righthand bar and peers over the left side of the bridge, repeating this with the right side.

"I have to do it," he thinks. "But which side do I go for? I guess it doesn't matter, as long as I don't step off one of the ends, I'll be fine."

He looks over the left side of the bridge and remembers that it is the way the stream was flowing. So if he does appear back in the water, he won't hit his head off the bridge.

"Well, here goes nothing"

Perry clenches onto the golden bars and pulls himself up to stand atop the handrail. He closes his eyes, pinches his nose, and takes a deep breath.

Then... he jumps.

"Mr. Platypus... Mr. Platypus. Mr. Platypus!"

Suddenly, Perry jolts awake to see Lynn, Bill, and Jackson looking down at him.

"Oh, Mr. Platypus," Bill says, putting his hand to his chest. "Thank goodness you're okay. We were worried about you. We came outside to see if you wanted some food and couldn't find you."

"Yeah!" Lynn butts in. "And when we went searching fer ya, Jackson here found yer body in dat stream o'er der. What happe'd to ya?

Perry sat up and shook his head. He wiped the water from his eyes and breathed heavily. He chattered as he regained his vision.

"Well, if you're okay than you should probably come back to our place," Bill said, relieved that Perry wasn't hurt. "There's a nice, big tree there that you could sleep under for the night. If you want, that is."

Perry smied and nodded his head as he stood up and stretched his arms.

"Well then, we better start back home before sundown. We have some food waiting for you if you'd like to try it. I don't know what you platypuses eat but it wouldn't hurt to give cricket food a whack, know what I mean?" Bill chuckles to himself as they head back to the stalk of grass. Next to it sits a tall tree that reaches high into the sky. It looks old, older than any other tree here. The crickets head inside and Lynn soon comes out with their dinner and tells Perry if he ever needs them to just chatter. Perry nods and Lynn reenters the grass stalk.

Perry lies down and looks up at the tree and stares at it. He has trouble falling asleep as he doesn't want to have the nightmares again. After about an hour or so, something grabs his attention. He can't believe he didn't notice it before.

The leaves, they're stationary! But, there's a breeze! He quickly sits up and looks down between his feet. Just as he thought; the grass is swaying with the wind, so why aren't the leaves doing likewise?

He rises from his resting spot and faces the tree. He moves closer to get a better look at it. He moves his hand forward and nears the tree. As he comes in contact with it, his hand flows through the trunk. He quickly pulls back, startled and in fear. He looks down at his hand and back up at the giant structure in front if him. He slowly backs away from it and stumbles on a root on the ground. He falls to the ground and closes his eyes. When he opens them back up, it is day again... but the tree is now gone!

Perry chatters and waits for the crickets to come but noone shows up. He chatters again, but still there is nothing. Perry, now freaked out, looks around him to make sure he is still on solid ground. He grabs onto the grass around him and accidentally tears it out of the dirt. He throws it into the air in frustration. He stands up and starts kicking his feet while pacing.

After a minutes of doing so, he turns to see a piece of grass floating in the air. He looks at it, confused. He reaches down for more grass and pulls it up from the ground. He pulls his arm back and swings, throwing the grass into the area of the floating grass. To his surprise, this grass also stops suddenly in midair. He looks at it from different angles to see if maybe there was a spider web or something. He picks up a twig and extends it out in front of him. He reaches for the area of the floating grass.

"Clunk!"

The stick hit something. Perry drops it and slowly approaches the invisible structure. He carefully places one hand on it, and then the other. After a few moments of feeling around, he finally gets the idea to use the invisinator. He reaches for his hat and pulls it out. He aims the ray at the floating grass and fires.

Out of nowhere, a gray, steel door appears, nothing else. Just the door. Perry with nowhere else to turn for answers, places his hand on the metal bar portruding from the door in front of him. He pulls it open and peeks around the now slightly ajar door.

Darkness. Nothing but darkness. Perry yanks the door open quickly and leaps back away from the entry way. He glares at it, not knowing what to do next. But he reluctantly walks forward still thinking to himself, "deception."

He steps out into the darkness and the steel door shuts behind him and disappears. Perry is now standing on what looks to be thin air. He tries reaching for something to hold onto but there is nothing. He is now motionless, scared stiff, afraid of falling into oblivion. But it's too late to turn back now. The door is gone and there's no way he's waking up from this one. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He opens his eyes and grins. He nods once and clenches his fists, ready to conquer whatever it is that lies ahead in the empty space of darkness.

This, is Perry All Alone.


	13. The Third Task: Perception

Perry looked around the darkness for a place to go but to no avail. He looked down to see himself apparently floating and lifted his foot. He stepped forward and suddenly the owl's voice boomed out.

"Impressive. Very impressive. But just because you completed the second task doesn't mean that you are free to go just yet. Your third and final task is just up ahead."

All of a sudden, a stone walkway appears in front of Perry. Over the edges of the balcony is what seems like a bottomless pit. Perry gulps and looks back at the path in front of him. He walks forward and something begins to fade into view. He squints to see it clearer as it emerges from the darkness.

"Your third task; perspective. You must carry this with you until the end of the trial in order to proceed."

In front of Perry sits a small gray, metallic box with foreign markings engraved on it.

"The path you are standing on right now will twist and turn, forcing you to choose a path. The obstacles you will encounter within are limited to that of your imagination. You will traverse through the darkness to your final destination. Once there, you will find a pedastal. Atop the pedastal lies the key to which the box opens. Take the key and unlock the box. Take the contents inside and exit in the direction of the wooden door. If you lose this box, you will be trapped in this realm for eternity. And one more thing; just because it doesn't make sense, doesn't mean it can't happen. Good luck."

The voice dissipates and leaves Perry to his thoughts. He walks forward and grabs the small box from the ground. He examines it, turning it every which way, then looks up. He steps forward and is greeted by the creaking of wooden floorboards. He shuffles his way to the end of the path, where it branches off left and right. He looks both ways and decides to head left. He scuttles along, tightly holding the box against his chest. After a right turn, he sees a pair of walls ahead, but as he approaches, he realizes that there is no floor. He turns back but the floor he was just walking on is now plummeting down into the darkness.

Once he chooses a path, there is no going back. He turns to face the walls again and rubs his foot against it. Slippery. Too slippery to climb on. He looks up and sees a chandelier hanging down from the darkness. He looks at the ledge in front of him and determines if it is close enough to jump and swing across. After some thoughtful consideration, he decides it is too wide of a gap to do so. He kicks a nail from the floor over the edge and it falls down the dark hole.

"Dammit! What am I supposed to do? Wait a second, what did that owl say before? 'Just because it doesn't make sense, doesn't mean it can't happen.' Maybe..."

Perry looks up at the top of the walls and focuses on the chandelier. He nears the edge and stops.

"Maybe..."

He puts one foot out over the pit and clenches his teeth. He puts his foot down to find solid ground.

"Yes!" he thinks to himself. "If I look at the walls and chandelier above I could keep the hole out of my sight, and instead I imagine a floor connecting the two walls to my side. Now just as long as I don't look down I should be fine. False perspective!"

When he makes it to the other side he looks back to see the pit. He feels energized having just solved the puzzle and ready for the next. He turns back around and starts ahead.

To Perry it feels like he's been walking forever, although it has only been a mere couple of minutes. He comes to an old drawbidge with a sign above it reading, "To pass through, one must pull the lever and push the button at the same time and the path will open."

Perry looks around and sees the lever on one side of the bridge and the button on the other. Around both is a glass box accessible only when on that side of the bridge. "Now how am I gonna do this one?"

Perry tries multiple tactics including pulling the lever and running over to the button quickly. He can't throw something at the button because the glass box is in the way. He sits down next to the lever and contemplates his next move. After a few moments his eyes widen and he gets an idea. He kneels down in front of the lever so that the button is underneath the lever in the background. When he pulls the lever, the button is also pushed.

"Forced perspective!"

The drawbridge opens and Perry takes his box and runs over. After a few more moments of walking, he finds himself standing in front of a huge gap in the path. Over to the side is a sign that reads, "Why don't you fall back and stretch a little?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" he thinks to himself as he looks over to the hole. Off in the distance he see the path continue onward. He can't imagine the path is there this time because there's nothing else to look at but the ground. He looks back over at the sign. "Fall back... stretch... little..." These could all be answers but Perry can't decode them for the life of him. After a few seconds of pondering and pacing, he looks back at the sign. "I'll deal with you later."

After a short rest, Perry awakes to find himself staring back at the gap. He is squinting from just waking up and he rubs his eyes. But then it hits him. He closes one eye and holds his hand out in front of him. His fingers are now around the tiny platform in the distance. "Perspective," he thinks. "Stretch." He closes his fingers around the platform and acts as if he is pulling it toward himself. When he moves his hand out from in front of his face, he sees that the platform is a little closer than before. Perry smiles. He repeats this process until the two ends of the path meet and he can walk across.

As he journeys on, he can't help but wonder what day it is, and where he is, and plenty of other questions that he would like to know the answer of. In front if him appears a small pedestal, but it is floating in midair.

But, wait a second... there's the path floating above it! After thinking this one through he tries something that's crazy enough to work. He walks under the pathway above him and, hoping for the best, tilts his head upside down. He suddenly begins to fall and lands on the platform above him. He grabs the key of of the pedestal and opens the box. Inside is a big piece of folded up paper and an apple with a bite taken out of it. He opens the paper up to see a picture on it.

He sees what looks to be the park back in Danville! He looks up at the wooden door he was supposed to go through and heads over to it. He tries opening it but it is locked. He tries to use the key he opened the box with but it fails to work. He looks back down at the paper he has and notices that it is the same shape and size of the door. He unfolds all the creases and places the picture of Danville on the door. He walks toward the paper and enters into it like you see on those road runner cartoons.

When he arrives back in Danville he looks down at the apple in his hand. He turns it over and examines in.

"Maybe it's one of the slivers," he thinks to himself. He looks around for the next place to go, but insteas notices the figure of light half concealed by the corner of a building. They stare at each other and then Perry decides to follow.

"It is time," he says. "To go back and restart your journey once more." Perry shows the figure the apple he found in the box and he takes it from his hands. "Ah, yes. One of the slivers. I see you've found one. But do not worry, the slivers are not affected by the portal. They will remain in your possession no matter how many times you pass through." Suddenly the two arrive in the field with the shack. "May your journey be a safe one. Now enter into the portal and remember this; one step forward is like two steps back. Farewell, and may the stars be with you."

Perry salutes as the figure of light flashes away. He turbs back to the shack and enters inside. He walks through the portal and is transported back to the streets of Danville.

On the other side of the road stands the shadow figure, staring. It disappears as a truck passes and leaves Perry frightened. But this time he knows what is happening. He must find the other slivers of the shadow figure if he wants to escape this horrid place. But for now he must find the location of the second sliver and retrieve it before things get any worse.

This, is Perry All Alone.


	14. Danville Manor

As Perry stands there in the streets of Danville, he thinks about what the figure of light had told him. "One step forward is like two steps back." This is the only clue he has as to what to do next. He looks down at his feet and thinks, "The next step... is to take two steps back." He steps backward twice and looks around to see if anything had happened, but it was eventless. He thinks about the things he could impliment this clue into.

"Could it be an escalator? Or maybe a treadmill... Moonwalking?"

As Perry gets frustrated with the puzzle, a gust of winds blows past him. "Maybe I'm looking into it too much," he thinks as he scratches his head. "Or maybe I'm not supposed to solve it right now but at a later time. But if that's the case, then where do I go now?" He looks around for any type of hint. He looks for the shadow of light, the birds with the notes, even the shadow figure, but nothing appears.

"How am I supposed to loacate all these slivers without knowing where... to..." He pauses then he thinks he knows what he can do. "Locate the slivers! Or in this case, 'locate-inate' them! Maybe I could scan this apple, being a sliver and all, and it will act as part of the shadow figure and guide me to him, or the other slivers, at least."

Perry, excited that he came up with this plan, scampers off towards the DEI building. He approaches the front doors and enters inside he makes his way to the Dr.'s floor and enters his room. He grabs the Locate-inator and turns it on. On the screen in flashing letters is, _"PLEASE PROVIDE DNA SAMPLE!"_

Perry holds the apple in front of the scanner in hopes that his plan will work. Suddenly on the screen it shows 4 different locations. They are each a fair distance from each other so collecting multiple in one go might prove a challenge, so he'll have to do it one by one. That means if he messes up and can't go through the portal anymore, he can't collect the others for it would already be too late. He has to be extremely careful from here on out.

Perry looks for the nearest blip on the screen and makes a note of its location in case the device is taken from him. He exits the building and starts off to find the second sliver.

**ELSEWHERE**

_In a small enclosed room..._

"We musn't let him find anymore slivers!" a booming voice bursts out from the darkness.

Another voice, shy and screetchy, responds, "Don't worry, the owl was just our first line of defense. If he even finds the location of the next sliver, the obstacles he will face working up to it will be too much for him too handle."

"That's what I like to here," the booming voice says. "But say he does make it past this next challenge, do we have a back up plan for the other three slivers?"

Mumbling is heard all around along with the occasional 'well' and 'um'.

"Grrrr, you idiots better get working on it! This isn't a game you know, and I will not put up with defeat because you guys couldn't get off your lazy asses to set up a simple red herring!" The voice becomes very aggitated and screams, "Get out of my sight... All of you!"

Chairs are heard rubbing against wooden floorboards and footsteps are heard slowly getting quieter as the creatures exit the scene. "I'll just have to set something up myself. Don't worry master, your soul is safe with me." The creature stands up from its chair and heads out the same way the others left.

**BACK WITH PERRY**

After walking for quite some time now, it is getting dark and the sky is overcast. The dot on the screen is very close now and Perry is preparing himself for whatever lies ahead. He looks down and sees that the next sliver is forward and to the left. When he turns the corner he lifts his head and sees a signpost that reads, "Danville Manor".

Just then, a bolt of lightning and a clap of thunder pierces the night and causes Perry to jump. Perry readjusts his hat and walks up to the cast iron gates. He pushes one open and it creates a rusty creaking noise. He walks through the courtyard and steps onto the porch of the mansion. He admires the giant metal doors standing before him and notices a sign near them.

_"Sight is just how we make sense of the things we see,_

_But not everything is what it may seem to be."_

Perry breathes deeply and grabs the copper knocker and hits it three times against the wooden door. After nothing happens he pushes the door open and steps inside trying to avoid the spider webs and cobwebs hanging down in his face.

As he enters inside he looks around and sees a few candles that are still lit and there are several passage ways to choose from. How will he ever know which one to go through and which ones are useless dead ends? He looks over and sees a suit of armor placed next to a door. A spider dangles from the blade of the sword in its hands.

He looks over to another door and above it is a painting of a fruit basket... but creepy and dull. He looks into the middle of the room and there are two curving staircases on either side leading up to the second floor. Between them is a small corridor lined with suits of armor leading up to a double door.

He decides he will start at the left and go right until he finds something. He walks to the keft and faces the door in front of him. He reaches for the loose knob and turns it clockwise. He pulls it open and steps inside. Behind the door is what looks to be a parlor of some sort. There is a persian rug in the middle of the room and a few pieces of furniture riddled with dust and spider webs. Over in the corner is a desk with an old lamp and a few papers on top.

Perry alertly walks over to the desk and rubs his finger across the top. He looks at his finger and blows the dust off. He shuffles through the papers and finds nothing. H reaches for the desk lamp and turns it on. He examines the room to see if anything happened. He sees the fireplace at the center of the room and heads over.

"Secret passage, secret passage," he thinks to himself. "There's always something hidden in the fireplace."

He drags his hand across the mantle. He tries rustling the logs inside the fire pit with the poker but nothing. He looks above the mantle expecting to see a portrait but nothing is there. "It's odd that there's nothing there, even if this place is deserted."

Just then, Perry thinks he notices something. "Not everything is what it may seem to be..." He gets a closer look at the wall above the fireplace and sees a string. He hops up on the fireplace and places his hand on the wall, but it's not a wall. Perry grabs the string and off comes a painting of the wall it was hanging on. Behind it lies a hidden passage. Perry places the picture on the ground below him and hops inside the tunnel.

As he walks along, he pushes away all the webs and insects crawling around. After about a minute of walking he comes to a wall. He leans on it and it opens up. He steps out and into a bedroom. He has just come through a mirror hanging on the wall.

He searches the room for some clues. As he finishes his search, he notices that the mirror has shut. He walks over and tries to open it but it won't budge. He tries the door but it is locked as well. He scans the room for another exit but sees none.

Perry starts becoming nervous. He is stuck inside the room with no apparent means of escaping. He will have to puzzles of every room of the mansion until he finds the next sliver. But not all will come easy to him. He hopes that he will be able to solve each one no matter how long it takes, as long as he can get out of here alive. A paranoid platypus sits in the dark and dusty bedroom of Danville Manor, looking, needing, hoping for a way out.

This, is Perry All Alone.


	15. The Second Sliver

Perry opens his eyes, realizing he had drifted off for a few seconds. He has to find a way out of this room he is trapped in. But hold on. Things are never that easy. If it were, he would have this mystery solved in no time. Maybe it's not that he has to find a way out of the room, but instead find a way into the room. What? That's crazy. He's already in the room. How could he possibly get into it again? Perry examines his surroundings and takes note of everything around him. He notices another mirror to the left of the bed, a dresser with empty drawers, a locked door, a night stand with a lamp on top of it, and a chest in the corner of the room. He tries the chest but it has been emptied of it's contents. He opens the drawer on the nightstand, but still there is nothing. He looks at the lamp and scratches his chin. He looks back over at the mirror he entered the room through. He tilts his head. He puts his hand against the glass and feels a warm sensation in his hand. He pulls back. He looks at his hand then back up at the mirror. He walks up to it and inhales. He lets out a big breath. He immediately feels a gust of air blow across his face. He flinches and steps back. He starts to think. He looks at the mirror from different angles and tries to determine what to do next. He paces the room for about 20 minutes until it hits him. He smiles.

Step One: Turn on the lamp and let it heat up.

Step Two: Take the covers off the bed and bunch them up.

Step Three: Place the chest near the balled up covers.

Step Four: Remove second mirror from wall.  
Step Five: Take the light bulb and smash it on the covers/chest, creating a spark and lighting it on fire.

Step Six: Hold the mirror over the fire, until hot enough to bend the glass.

Step Seven: Bend the glass like a spoon.

Now that Perry has the angled mirror, he places it on the wall. He steps back and he has done it. His reflection is now upside down. He walks toward the mirror and ducks as to not hit his head off of his own. Without the reflection in the way, he is able to pass to the other side. He walks over to the door and grabs the handle. He turns it and the door swings open. Success.

Now that he is out of the room, he tries to figure out just where he is inside the mansion. He looks left and right, up and down, and sees the two staircases. He heads down back to the main area he first entered into. When he reaches the main doors, he spins around. To the far left is the area in which he just progressed through. He walks over to the door on the left closer to where he is standing. He jiggles the handle and passes through the door frame. He now stands in what looks to be a kitchen of some sort. The floor is slick and it the scent of spices invades Perry's nostrils. He looks around for a light switch and spots one to the left. He walks over and reaches out his arm. His stubby platypus finger flicks the switch up and the once dark room is now eluminated by a yellow light. The slight buzz of electronics is apparent in his ear. Perry takes a moment to allow his eyes to adjust and then takes everything in. The room is in the shape of a square, with the stove to the left of the room. Going clockwise, above that are some cabinets, and then a refrigerator. At the far end of the room is the sink and a dishwasher. Next to it, more cabinets. The left of the room holds a counter top, an oven, and a pantry door. In the center is a counter with some stools around it. Perry shuffles across the floor toward the cabinets nearest the stove. He reaches for the cabinets and pulls them open. Inside are some packages of pasta, crutons, and bags of chips. Nothing out of the ordinary. He turns to the fridge and opens the door. A light comes on inside as a cold breeze passes over Perry's body. He gets a slight chill then starts rummaging through the compartments in the fridge. Still nothing suspicious. Heading over to the sink, he hears water dripping. Upon further investigation, he notices the faucet was not completely off. He turns the knob and the noise stops. He checks inside of the sink for anything as well as the dishwasher. Again, nothing.

"This is getting rediculous," he thinks to himself. "I'll have to check every little nook and cranny in this mansion to find that sliver. He finishes up looking through the kitchen with the rest of the cabinets, oven, and pantry. Once he has decided there is nothing in here, at least that he could find at this moment, he exits the kitchen. This time, Perry tries the door on the immediate right and finds what seems to be a gallery displaying paintings of olden times. There is a small hallway before entering into the main walkspace and there are spiderwebs and dust collected at the corner where wall and ceiling meet. Perry scuddles through the hallway, glancing at each distinguished painting as he passes by. As he approaches the center of the room, he sees that there are two wings off to either side. At the far end of the room lies a mantelpiece, upon which lie many a sodden candle, the wax of which staining a ring on the mantelpiece. Above the mantelpiece on the ceiling is a small opening, just wide enough for the rainwater outside to seep through. In the corners of the room are two crests with a pair of blades behind each. The left wing has more paintings that line the walls on either side until a sudden stop where a single painting hangs honorably facing front. The right wing bears many paintings similar to the prior but still distinguishable enough that there is no unneccesary space taken up.

To Perry's disbelief, it appears that he has come across another room unsupportive of the sliver he is looking for. But, just in case, he fervently searches the room. He doesn't find much in terms of a hiding place, but that small opening in the ceiling does inspire his curiosity some. He clears the mantel of its contents and hops up on top of it. He slowly and carefully reaches his platypus hand up and into the opening. As he pats around, unaware of what he is currently grabbing at, he feels a tiny poke on his forefinger. He flinches slightly but does not withdraw his arm. He steadily reaches for the object and grasps it in his palm. He slides his hand out and witnesses the object that lay in his hand. A crystal lay in his hands and his locate-inator begins beeping. It must be the sliver!

At that moment a drop of water drips from the ceiling and onto the sliver, illuminating it like the glare from the sun off of a phone screen. The sudden flash blinds Perry and the sliver falls from his hand. As it falls, it hits the edge of the mantel piece, rolls across the wooden floor, and into a hole he had not previously noticed.

"Shit!" he cries out. "How painfully stubborn these stupid mansions can be." Perry, ignorant of the puddle of water on the floor, leaps down and slips, causing the candles to fall after him. He gets up and walks over to the newly found hole in the floor panels. He examines the opening and tries to peek inside. He finds that the opening is not big enough to see anything without blocking off the flow of light. He then tries lifting up the floorboards but finds them nailed down. He returns to his former tactic as he slips his hand into the hole, but to no avail. "That's just great," he thinks to himself. "Now I'll NEVER find it!" He kicks at the floor and pouts. How could he come so far just to "lose it all underneath the floorboards"?

After pulling it together, Perry gets down on the ground and examines the hole once more. He looks at it from each and every angle, still having trouble seeing. If the candles weren't soaked he might try lighting one of them to place in the hole for a lightsource. The thought of retrieving a candle from a different room had crossed his mind but after much thought he concluded that even if he did find a way to light it, the flame could quite possibly ignite the wooden floor boards and burn the entire mansion down to the ground. As he paces the room with a feeling of uncertainty, a sudden moment of realization dons upon the platypus. How ironic that the very thing that caused his current predicament would be the thing to solve it. Two feet move along the floor and over to the mantel. Perry reaches for the arrangement of candles and lifts one of them up. He takes the dish and lays the candle down. He transports the dish, which had collected the water dripping from the ceiling, over to the hole in the floor and pours a few drops into the hole. A blinding light emits from somewhere in the hole and without hesitation, Perry quickly reaches for the sliver, locking it in his fingertips and pulling it back out.

"Success!" he thinks proudly as he stands up. He turns the crystal over in his hand and, careful not to drop it again, stores it under his hat. "Now I have to get back to that portal somehow." As Perry starts for the door to the main room, he notices that it has disappeared. "Son of a-"

This, is Perry All Alone.

**What will become of Perry now? Tune in next time to find out!**


End file.
